Akshardham
A 43-metre temple built without a single steel beam — pink sandstone and marble held together by ancient Shilpa shastra rules alone.
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The entire base is the Gajendra Pith, a plinth of 148 life-sized stone elephants weighing 3,000 tons combined. Nine domes and 234 pillars rise above it, carved with dancers, musicians, deities, flora, and fauna. No concrete, no steel anywhere: Rajasthani sandstone and Italian Carrara marble shaped entirely by traditional Hindu architectural guidelines.
What to look for
- The Gajendra Pith: 148 life-sized elephants ringing the temple base, totalling 3,000 tons
- Nine domes and 234 pillars carved with musicians, dancers, deities, and flora
- The Sahaj Anand water show in the grounds
The complex sits on the Yamuna riverbank near the Delhi-Noida border — factor in extra travel time from central Delhi.
Akshardham is one of 35 sights worth the detour in Delhi, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Delhi pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Delhi
- Red FortThe ramparts where Jawaharlal Nehru raised India's flag on 15 August 1947 still host that ceremony every Independence Day.
- Qutb MinarSuccessive dynasties handed this tower off across 170 years — Aibak started it in 1199, Firuz Shah Tughlaq capped it with a cupola in 1368.
- Humayun's TombThe red-sandstone ancestor of the Taj Mahal — commissioned by an empress, designed by Persian architects, and finished a century before Agra.
- Jama MasjidShah Jahan built his imperial mosque at the highest point of Shahjahanabad — the Mughal capital — and it was regarded as a symbolic gesture of Mughal power across India.
- Lotus TempleTwenty-seven marble petals, grouped in threes, fold into a single hall where any person of any faith walks in without condition.
- India GateAround 13,300 names carved in stone — soldiers lost across Gallipoli, Mesopotamia, and the Afghan frontier.